SA'V\ 

RADICALISM  REPULSED  BUT 
NOT  DEFEATED 


Address  by 


JAMES  A.  EMERY 

Counsel,  Association  of  Manufacturers 


RAILWAY  BUSINESS  ASSOCIATION 
ANNUAL  DINNER 


DEC.  11,  1924 


JAMES  A.  EMERY 
Counsel 

National  Association  of  Manufacturers 

Who  bade  the  annual  dinner  audience 
not  only  take  heart  from  Ihe  anti- 
radical elections  both  in  America  and 
Great  Britain,  but  from  successful  ef- 
forts here  to  solve  problems  without 
leaning  upon  the  government,  such  as 
the  shippers’  and  carriers’  Regional 
Advisory  Boards 


'7-/6'**' 

4 


RADICALISM  REPULSED  BUT  NOT  DEFEATED 

By  James  A.  Emery 

Counsel,  Association  of  Manufacturers 

Address  delivered  at  the  Annual  Dinner  of  the  Railway  Business  Association, 
the  Commodore,  New  York,  Dec.  11,  1924 


THE  administrators,  ministers, 
and  students  of  transporta- 
tion gather  at  your  hospitable 
board  under  circumstances  ex- 
citing reflective  satisfaction.  The  con- 
temporaneous rejection  of  radicalism 
by  the  English-speaking  people  is  no 
accident.  It  bears  all  the  character- 
istics of  mental  recovery  following  de- 
moralizing reaction  to  the  shock  that 
rocked  civilization.  It  marks  a return 
from  chimeras  to  realities.  It  indi- 
cates that  in  both  countries  painful  ex- 
perience and  enlightening  discussion 
convinced  an  overwhelming  portion  of 
the  electorate  that  sincere  radicals  are 
not  always  intelligent,  nor  intelligent 
[ radicals  always  sincere. 

RADICALISM  REPUDIATED 

But  the  verdict  is  cause  for  relief 
rather  than  complacency,  particularly 
in  the  field  of  transportation.  We 
still  confront  its  real  enduring  prob- 
lems. But  at  least  we  continue  the 
study  more  normally  minded.  Polit- 
ical sanitation  has  made  marked 
progress.  The  threatening  ravages  of 
economic  contagion  have  been  checked 
and  sharply  localized ; pink  pills  for  a 
pale  nation  examined  and  declined. 
The  new  eclectic  school  opened  with 
enthusiasm  is  abandoned  in  silence 
while  the  certificates  of  its  founders 
are  threatened  with  cancellation  by 


suddenly  courageous  practitioners  of 
the  regular  course. 

However  comforting  these  develop- 
ments, social  well  being  is  not  perma- 
nently assured  by  confidence  in  a pre- 
siding medical  genius.  The  individ- 
ual must  still  take  the  usual  precau- 
tions. Fortunately  he  gives  evidence 
of  his  intention  to  do  so.  For  we  have 
witnessed  a decisive  test  of  popular  ad- 
herence to  fundamental  American 
principles  and  practical  public  policy. 

PARTY  RESPONSIBILITY 

We  may  fairly  interpret  the  Novem- 
ber verdict  as  an  encouraging  tendency 
to  turn  from  legislative  blocs,  groups, 
or  classes,  however  plausible  in  pur- 
pose, to  a representative  Congress  with 
a working  party  majority  led  by  a re- 
sponsible Executive.  We  have  de- 
cisively rejected  the  definite  sugges- 
gestion  of  an  omnipotent  legislature 
and  reaffirmed  our  faith  in  the  limita- 
tions of  a written  Constitution  judi- 
cially interpreted  and  enforced  in  every 
conflict  between  the  asserted  rights  of 
the  individual  and  the  alleged  authority 
of  our  political  agencies.  Throughout 
the  States  every  serious  proposal  for 
organic  change,  enlarged  with  public 
authority,  or  radical  experiment  was 
sharply  rejected. 

Emphatically  declining  to  empower 
the  federal  legislature  to  take  plenary 


and  exclusive  control  of  the  occupa- 
tional life  of  all  under  18,  Massachu- 
setts reasserted  the  traditional  Ameri- 
can doctrine  of  community  responsi- 
bility for  the  reform  of  local  condi- 
tions through  local  regulation  resting 
upon  local  opinion. 

Realizing  the  best  of  institutions  de- 
pend for  their  successful  operation 
upon  the  quality  of  their  human  ad- 
ministrator, the  people,  without  re- 
gard to  party,  expressed  their  over- 
whelming confidence  in  an  Executive 
that  personified  the  traditional  and 
practical  qualities  of  American  indi- 
vidualism. 

REPULSED,  NOT  DEFEATED 

But  let  no  one  be  deceived.  Revolu- 
tionary innovation  and  the  determina- 
tion to  enlarge  the  governmental  con- 
trol of  life  is  repulsed,  not  defeated. 
The  partnership  of  formal  socialism 
and  radical  suggestion  save  to  unify 
American  opinion.  The  very  nature  of 
the  threat  to  cherished  institutions 
stirred  a new  appreciation  of  their  sig- 
nificance and  rallied  a color  guard  at 
their  base.  But  ever  the  armies  of 
error  must  be  met  in  new  fields,  and 
old  truths  be  learned  again  in  a chang- 
ing day.  But  the  immediate  argument 
proceeds  with  new  hope  and  unmistak- 
able determination.  Every  circum- 
stance of  the  recent  election  indicates 
a return  to  the  major  premises  of 
American  life. 

VOTERS  SOUND  ON  TRANSPOR- 
TATION 

Nor  were  pending  issues  of  trans- 
portation untouched  by  the  November 
verdict,  The  most  persuasive  and  per- 
sistent proponent  of  more  restrictive 
railroad  regulation  or  public  operation 
urged  his  proposals  under  the  most 


favorable  conditions  to  a national 
audience.  One  hundred  ninety  mem- 
bers of  Congress  who  recorded  their 
opposition  to  the  Howell-Barkley  Bill 
proposing  the  abolition  of  the  Railroad 
Labor  Board  and  the  substitution 
therefor  of  the  personal  plan  of  the 
Railroad  Labor  organizations,  were 
officially  black-listed  by  the  powerful 
group  whose  designs  they  obstructed. 
One  hundred  seventy  were  re-elected. 
Twenty  who  declined  re-nomination 
for  various  reasons  are  succeeded  by 
men  of  similar  view  point.  The  re- 
mainder retired  under  varying  circum- 
stances which  in  no  instance  are  attri- 
butable to  the  political  anathema.  The 
casualties,  however,  among  supporters 
of  the  proposal  suggest  the  familiar 
prayer  for  delivery  from  friends. 

The  best  assurance  of  sound  public 
policy  is  informed  opinion.  Extraordi- 
nary improvement  in  the  operating- 
efficiency  of  the  American  Railroad 
system  particularly  during  the  past 
two  years  is  a fact  too  perceptible  to 
escape  public  notice.  The  determination 
of  the  carriers  to  imperil  their  credit 
to  assure  the  facilities  for  adequate 
service  made  a permanent  and  favor- 
able impression  on  the  public  mind, 
while  the  fact  that  improvement  grows 
as  government  administration  recedes 
is  not  a lost  lesson.  Every  improve- 
ment in  working  relations  of  railroad 
management  and  those  whom  they 
serve  makes  less  necessary  the  inter- 
vention of  government. 

SHIPPERS’  COOPERATION 

Tonight  we  stand  in  the  presence 
of  the  most  significant  working  experi- 
ment in  practical  cooperation  between 
shipper  and  carrier  in  the  history  of 
transportation. 

In  the  Northwest,  the  Mid-west,  the 


. Southeast  and  Southwest,  in  the  valley 

■ of  the  Ohio,  the  Great  Lakes,  through 
r the  Atlantic  States,  Central  West,  over 

Missouri  and  beyond  Kansas  and 
spreading  over  the  Pacific  slope,  ten 
Regional  Advisory  Boards  composed 
of  5500  leaders  in  agriculture,  com- 
merce and  industry,  the  free  selection 
of  their  fellow  shippers,  because  of 
superior  knowledge,  experience,  and 
character,  are  organized  to  study,  ana- 
lyze, estimate,  and  anticipate  in  con- 
tinuing cooperation  with  corresponding 
committees  of  railway  traffic  officials 
the  requirements  of  each  locality  in 
terms  of  its  own  production  and  dis- 
tribution and  its  relation  to  adjacent 
territories.  No  railroad  official  is  a 
member  of  these  Boards  or  votes  on 
their  conclusions.  They  represent  ex- 
perts selected  by  the  shipping  public, 

| organized  into  commodity  committees, 
i masters  of  the  facts,  working  in  har- 
mony in  each  region  with  a district 
manager  of  the  Car  Service  Division 
of  the  American  Railway  Association 
and  the  traffic  representatives  of  the 
regional  carriers.  They  learn  to  know 
! each  other,  their  needs  present  and 
future,  how  to  employ  most  efficiently 
■ the  units  of  transportation  and  to  meet 
and  dispose  of  the  frictions  of  clashing 
interest. 

The  first  Board  was  boldly^  estab- 
, lished  two  years  ago  in  the  presumably 
i most  prejudiced  States  of  Minnesota, 

■ j South  and  North  Dakota,  and  Mon- 

tana. It  assembled,  united  in  service, 
and  harmonized  the  most  conflicting 
interests,  of  most  delicate  situation. 
In  rapid  succession  nine  additional 
j bodies  have  been  established  in  dis- 
tricts of  common  concern.  Resting 

Ei  the  firm  basis  of  common  interest 
have  builded  a fabric  of  human 
dons  woven  in  mutual  confidence 


and  respect.  They  are  gradually  sub- 
stituting facts  and  reason  for  opinion 
and  prejudice.  Knowledge  and  under- 
standing for  surmise  and  suspicion, 
and  conference  for  conflict. 

NO  APPEALS  NECESSARY 

They  have  preserved  undiminished 
the  independence  of  carrier  and  ship- 
per, yet  found  a means  of  reconciling 
their  differences.  Requiring  in  the  first 
instance  that  each  should  exhaust  its 
resources  of  reconciliation  before  ap- 
pealing to  the  commodity  committees 
or  Regional  Boards,  they  have  been  so 
singularly  successful  in  adjustment 
that  in  two  years  not  a single  complaint 
among  137  major  disputes  has  passed 
beyond  their  committees  or  Boards  to 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission. 
Recognizing  that  accelerating  the  car 
unit  of  transportation  is  the  basis  of 
improved  service,  these  Boards  have 
organized  64  terminal  committees  in 
as  many  principal  unloading  centers 
and  assure  a quicker  handling  of  per- 
ishable products,  a higher  price  to  the 
producer,  and  a greatly  expedited 
movement  of  equipment.  They  have 
stimulated  a more  rapid  movement  of 
Western  empties  through  voluntary 
action  than  has  hitherto  been  attained 
by  mandatory  regulation.  They  have 
vastly  aided  heavier  loading  of  equip- 
ment by  shippers  and  better  care  and 
prompter  release  by  receivers  of 
freight.  In  the  Northwest  they  have 
procured  the  adoption  of  uniform  prac- 
tice for  the  distribution  of  grain  cars 
between  cooperative,  independent,  and 
old  line  elevators  and  at  the  height  of 
the  largest  grain  movement  in  the 
memory  of  Duluth  laid  a voluntary 
embargo  upon  the  most  sensitive  of 
grain  markets  without  incurring  an 
unfriendly  criticism.  In  the  last  two 


varying  years,  the  first  of  evenly  dis- 
tributed car  demand,  and  the  last 
breaking  all  the  records  of  transpor- 
tation history,  car  service  remained 
adequate  without  congestion,  without 
shortage  of  equipment,  and  without 
shipping  complaint  and  with  a notable 
increase  in  serviceable  locomotives  and 
cars  in  storage. 

ENLARGED  FACILITIES 

It  would  be  erroneous  to  attribute 
this  remarkable  result  to  these  new 
forms  of  cooperation  alone.  No  less 
essential  was  the  vast  addition  to  phy- 
sical facilities  and  plants  made  by  the 
carriers  and  the  systematic  cooperation 
in  car  distribution  through  the  Car 
Service  Division  of  the  American  Rail- 
way Association.  But  without  the  in- 
formed, sympathetic,  and  continuing 
cooperation  of  the  public  through  the 
Regional  Advisory  Boards  this  splen- 
did mechanism  of  coordinated  effort 
had  lacked  a vital  element. 

Which  is  the  better,  that  shipper  and 
carrier  shall  each  among  themselves 
pursue  their  different  ways  presenting 
their  inevitable  differences  to  public 
Boards  and  Commissions,  to  fasten 
upon  the  most  sensitive  and  complex 
of  essential  social  instrumentalities  the 
inflexible  rule  of  a statute,  or,  that  they 
join  hands  in  working  out  locally,  re- 


gionally, and  nationally  the  best  means 
of  utilizing  this  vital  form  of  social 
service  ? 

SUPERSEDING  GOVERNMENT 
INTERFERENCE 

Nor  is  this  heartening  spectacle 
without  its  larger  lesson  in  an  hour 
like  this.  Lord  Moulton  in  his  masterly 
analysis  of  the  domain  of  law  finds  it 
divisible  into  that  of  the  positive  stat- 
ute, the  domain  of  manners  and  that 
of  liberty.  The  first  represents  the 
field  of  rigid  rule ; the  second  the  vast 
domain  of  custom ; the  third  that  of 
freedom  which  insensibly  merges  into 
the  former.  We  have  witnessed  in  the 
past  decade,  we  shall  see  now  and  here- 
after, the  continuing  effort  of  those 
determined  to  enlarge  the  field  of  posi- 
tive law,  and  ever  lessen  that  of  either 
manners  or  liberty.  As  our  industrial 
civilization  becomes  daily  more  com- 
plex it  must  find  self-imposed  restraint 
increasingly  growing  within  the  struc- 
ture, by  the  voluntary  action  of  en- 
lightened self-interest  or  in  social  self- 
defense  it  will  be  increasingly  imposed 
by  law.  As  each  business  establishes 
its  ethical  standards,  it  builds  custom 
as  a constructive  substitute  for  legal 
coercion  and  by  the  acts  of  individuals 
and  groups  makes  less  necessary  the 
intervention  of  public  authority. 


